Canberra

Today we did the lonely planets walking tour of Canberra. It was about a 6km walk around the ‘Parliament Triangle’ and was meant to take around 2hrs. Once we had stopped off at some of the sights it ended up being around 5hrs. Quite tiring!

We began by the Old Parliament, which is now a museum and art gallery. More interestingly, in front of the building, is the Aboriginal tent embassy, which was established in 1972 as a protest against the denial of land-rights and self-determination of the Aboriginal people. It literally is just a few tents, a dilapidated caravan and a log fire, which has supposedly never stopped burning. A few snaps later and we moved on to visit the first art galleries of our trip; the national portrait gallery and national gallery of Australia. Neither Andrea or I are big art lovers, but some of the stuff in the portrait gallery, in particular, was pretty interesting. Our tour ended at the new Parliament building, which sits on ‘Capital Hill’. The architecture is very impressive and the views from the rooftop were spectacular. Canberra has been designed so that 8-9 roads run straight out for several miles from the centre of the hill. So standing on the top of the parliament building really feels like you are in the centre of Australia!


Aboriginal tent embassy


New Parliament building

We stopped off briefly in the main shopping district of Canberra, to have a look, but were disappointed at how quiet it was at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon. We didn’t hang around long and headed back to the hostel in Dickson. Here the high street was a hive of activity, much like St Kilda, but much more manageable. There are quite a few Asian restaurants on the strip and we stopped off at a Chinese restaurant for dinner, which was great. Much better after our Chinese disaster in Melbourne.

Tomorrow we are heading back to the parliament building to sit in on our first ever parliamentary proceedings. The subject is the emissions trading scheme (ETS - its all over the news at the moment in Australia) in light of the Copenhagen summit approaching in the next few weeks. Could be interesting or incredibly boring. We’ll soon find out!!

Final stop Canberra

We headed towards Canberra this morning, for what is the final place that we visit in this first section of our Australia trip.

The journey from Wagga Wagga wasn’t too far, and in light of some of our recent exciting journeys, this one was pretty uneventful. Not even any interesting road kill.

Other than the drive, we didn’t really get chance to explore very much as most of the day was taken up with training, as today is session Saturday where I do two reps sessions in a day. We are not staying in central Canberra, instead we are in one of the suburbs, called Dickson, in a hostel above a takeaway from which there are some wicked smells, particularly at the end of a training session. It seems nice and relaxed and we’re well chuffed that the dorm we booked has only us in it. We also discovered a great grass athletics track ten mins walk from the hostel which is perfect for training so we’re impressed so far with our choice of accommodation,

We have allowed ourselves two days to explore Canberra before being Sydney bound on Tuesday ready for our flight. There seems to be quite a bit to do and after the success of the lonely planet’s Melbourne walking tour we plan on tackling the Canberra version tomorrow. Tomorrow we will have more to report I’m sure...

Wiradjuri and Murrumbidgee

We have a couple of nights in the (not so) swanky Ramonas Hotel. Having arrived yesterday it meant that today was our main day in which we would be able to investigate Wagga Wagga. Some of the towns main features - that are free - are the botanical gardens and the Wiradjuri walk. We decided to do a bit of both.

The botanical gardens were good. Not as beautiful as those in Melbourne, but more varied and with more activities for tourists. We got sucked into doing a ‘fitness walk’, which would never pass health and safety in the UK. The reasons: hurdle runs (with hurdles made of steel) and rope and tyre climbs taking you 7-8m off the ground with no support! We gave them a go anyway and have no injuries to report. The gardens also had a free zoo, always more enjoyable if you don’t have to pay, which housed land animals native to Australia and birds (some from further afield). It was interesting as many of the birds were able to wander wherever they wanted. It meant dodging some low-flying peacocks at times!


Check me out on the chin-ups

In the afternoon we walked a section of the Wiradjuri walk, which is 30km long in total and takes you around the edge of town, along the Murrumbidgee River and past some Aboriginal sites. We did the small section of it that ran past our hotel. For such a well-marked walk we were surprised not to see anybody else the whole time. All the walkers around here must be contributing positively to society by working or something. What a waste of time ;).

Tomorrow we are heading east to check out Australia’s capital - Canberra. It is meant to have some good stuff to see and do. Hopefully we’ll have a fun-packed 3 days.

Wagga Wagga

Today we left Falls Creek and travelled north, back into New South Wales to a small city called Wagga Wagga. We were sad to leave Falls Creek behind but did manage a short walk to Falls Creek Falls before we left, which involved traversing down the side of a steep hill on a largely overgrown path. The falls were worth it, but I would have been able to enjoy it more if I had been wearing shoes instead of flip flops as I spent most of the time with my eyes on the ground looking out for my friends Mr Slither and Mr Tarantula.

The journey to Wagga Wagga took around four hours, and once we got out of the mountains it was pretty hot with temperatures back up to around 38-39 degrees, it took us a little bit by surprise after the coolness of the mountains.

Wagga Wagga is apparently New South Wales’ largest inland city with a population of nearly 60,000, which seems quite strange, as it doesn’t feel a whole lot bigger, if any, than a place like Northallerton. Maybe it is just more spread out. When we arrived we both noticed that it was a similar sort of place to both Horsham and Mildura - the high street has the same layout, it has a river and the same sort of facilities. We are staying in a place called Romano’s hotel, which if we had not been so hot or so tired would have had us in stitches. The beds are sunken in the middle, the ladies showers like a building site and the curtains neither fully close nor fully open. But never mind, it’s a roof and it’s cheap so I’m sure we’ll be fine. Maybe when we return to the UK we can get a job on that hotel inspectors programme with our forever extending experience of what to expect for what you’re prepared to pay.

There is a 30km aboriginal walking trail that starts in Wagga Wagga which we will be looking at tomorrow. We definitely won’t be doing all of it but may attempt a reasonable walk if the weather holds out. There is also some botanical gardens which we can compare to Melbourne’s and a free museum - whilst we’re not really museum people, we may aswell go as it’s free!

We love Falls Creek

We have both fallen in love with Falls Creek. The amazing scenery, picturesque walks, and fantastic accommodation is all to blame. Having the Viking lodge all to ourselves influences things a bit as well. It’s meant that we have been able to treat the place as ours. The lounge is massive with the most comfortable sofas we have had in any of our hostels so far. It would be great for large groups to come to and relax. In fact that is what a lot of people do here anyway, especially if they are here to run, cycle or ski - there is only so much exercise you can do in one day! The only thing that Falls Creek falls down on is the lack of a decent supermarket and internet access, hence why we are uploading two of our blogs at the same time.


The infamous lounge

The day started a little later than normal as there was no need to get out running before the heat, as it only reaches around 20C here. Andrea managed an 80min run around some of the undulating roads out of the town. The altitude doesn’t seem too noticeable on the steady runs as Andrea was able to clip along at a decent pace. It has worked out that we are moving on before Andrea’s next harder sessions, so we don’t know how the thinner air would affect things on the harder efforts. Something to test out next time maybe ;).


Andrea on her run

At around midday we went for a 4mile walk to the north of the town, which took us up a few hundred meters overlooking the town. There is only a little snow around, which will melt further as it warms up. During the Australian summer Falls Creek is a haven for walkers and they go to town for them. The walking routes are all planned and marked out, which is awesome. Means you see some good sights and more importantly; can’t get lost! We returned and did ‘big core’ before relaxing the rest of the evening in the lounge and watching TV.


Mt McKay - last nights walk - altitude 1852m


Falls Creek from above

During the day we saw a few more Australian and American distance runners, including Bobby Curtis (who ran 13:19min for 5000m last year) and Collis Birmingham (Australian distance running stud who ran 13:14min for 5000m this year and qualified for world champs final in Berlin as well). It got us thinking about being full-time elite athletes. It is something that at some points we have both dreamed about. The lifestyle is fantastic - you are able to travel the world through racing and get to train in amazing venues such as Falls Creek. Apart from the training it is a really relaxed lifestyle (its important to not get too tired between runs) and you get to do something you love doing every day. If things are going to plan it is great. However, with running you are always just an injury away from having to write-off a season and even if you are in your best shape ever, unless you get the right races, have the right mental approach and a bit of luck as well, then it can all be for nothing. You may as well not have bothered with all the hard effort. And when you are so focused on certain goals, which can be months or even years away it can be demoralising when things don’t go right. Especially as you have days and months to mull things over. Not much else to take your mind off things. Many elites can’t handle being full-time if things aren’t going right. That is why it is always important to have a sense of perspective and not let the sport totally dominate your life. Obviously being full-time is a must to attain the most out of yourself, but unless you are the right sort of person, it can be sole-destroying if things aren’t going as you want them to.

That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have jumped at the chance though ;)

Falls Creek

We headed up to Falls Creek this morning, after a reps session along the lakeside in Lakes Entrance. Described as an Alpine Village, Falls Creek is the Dividing Range Mountains, a little bit in the middle of nowhere but being at 5000ft, it is regarded (as I learnt today) as being in the top 8 altitude training venues in the world for elite athletes. We know of a few British and Australian athletes that come here every year.

The drive up to Falls Creek was pretty interesting. Part of the route involved travelling on the Great Alpine Road, before veering off it 70km or so before we got to Falls Creek. The journey was basically up, down and around the side of mountains, so lots of hairpin bends and steep uphills and downs. This slowed us down a bit, that and stopping numerous times for photos of the superb views. Once to look at a big squashed snake on the road which Chris insisted on doing a U Turn to photograph. Dead or not, I wasn’t impressed.

About 30km from Falls creek we then started climbing much more steeply for at least 15-20min. I can understand why the road is a ‘summer only’ road! I wouldn’t fancy my chances on snow and ice, especially with a fairly large drop right at the side of the road and no barriers! What surprised us a little was that, about 15km from Falls Creek, it then levelled out and was (by mountain standards) pretty flat. We decided it would be good for training and began to wonder if any of the elite athletes used it for tempo runs.

Our biggest disappointment of the day came when we checked into the Lodge at Falls Creek. The kitchen was brilliant, the room nice and there was lots of space in the lounge. Our disappointment was to hear from the owner that, that very morning a group of international level Australian distance runners had checked out of this very lodge having stayed there for ten days. Gutted we missed them!

One other little story to tell occurred whilst out on our run. We spotted a fellow runner running towards us. Immediately interested as I am in other runners, I pointed him out to Chris and as I did so we noticed he was running pretty quick. Our eyes perked up as we ran towards him to see who he was. As soon as he passed us we both looked at each other and squawked ’Gunther Weidlinger! - probably whilst he was still within earshot. Gunther is the Austrian record holder for every distance from 1500m to the marathon (including steeplechase) and recently ran 2:10 for the marathon. He is the only person in the world to have such a record. We were nearly at the end of our run and deliberated for some time if we could stalk him, or follow him back to see where he was staying. But we decided it may look a bit odd so we were content to sit on a rock at the side of the road and wait for him to run back past us so we could take a photo (and Chris could shout ’Gunther’ really loudly whilst waving madly) - not discreet at all!!!


Great Alpine Road


Gunther Weidlinger



From the top of Mt McKay

Some people may remember Gunther Weidlinger from his infamous fall during the steeple at the Osaka World Champs. Ouch!!

Seals and snakes

As Andrea said yesterday, Lakes Entrance is located where several large salt-water lakes meet the sea. Today we decided to do a 4mile walk which would take in the actual lakes ‘entrance’. The walk started around the town centre and quickly took us into a wooded area. Here our wildlife hunt continued with a lot of success. Between us we saw 6 or 7 lizards and our second snake (don‘t worry I didn‘t get close this time). The snake was lying on some rotting wood to the side of our path, as soon as we stopped it slid silently into the undergrowth. Unfortunately the lizards and snakes were too quick for us to get any photos. Must be our elephant feet scaring them off. We promise we’re not making it up!! We eventually arrived at the lakes entrance, which due to the windy weather meant that the waters were pretty treacherous. The mouth is only 60-70m wide and services three large lakes, so as the tide comes in and out there is a lot of water to move around. We stopped to have our lunch and were just about to go when we noticed some seals jumping out of the water around the entrance! There were quite a few about, most probably hunting for fish as they moved from the sea into the lakes with the tide movement. It was a pretty cool site and I was lucky to get a snap of one mid-flight. The second half of the walk was all on sand along a stretch of the ‘90 mile beach’ and was really tiring. With sand in our shoes we headed back to the motel, happy with our days work ;).


A section of the 90 mile beach


The ‘entrance’


Blink and you’ll miss it - our seal spot

Tomorrow we are driving north up the Great Alpine Road to Falls Creek for our last few days in Victoria. The road rises from sea-level to approximately 1500m altitude. Unwittingly it means running at altitude for a couple of days, so we’ll have to be careful. Hopefully as we missed out on the Great Ocean Road due to bad planning, the Great Alpine Road will go some way to making up for it.

Lakes Entrance

The torrential rains continued this morning and I noticed that the Aussie’s aswell as the Brits find it hilarious to drive through puddles at the side of the road quickly so as to drench poor runners at the side of the road. Well, I couldn’t have got any wetter so actually the joke’s on them!

Today we left Philip Island and headed along the South Coast to a small town called Lakes Entrance. The rain made driving conditions difficult so we did not arrive until late afternoon. Unfortunately we did not have chance to explore much other than to sample some locally caught ‘blue grenadier’ fish which was pretty nice (high praise indeed considering I don’t even like fish). It was just what we needed after another long drive and yet another day of cheese and piccalilli sandwiches for lunch.

Lakes Entrance is quite small and at first glance seems to mainly consist of Motel’s, Hotel’s and caravan parks. The whole of the road on which we are staying is mainly comprised of accommodation with a few restaurants and the odd souvenir shop. The town is surrounded on two sides by ‘lakes’ although these are coastal lakes and lead to the sea. Our Motel is on the Esplanade and we feel almost like we are staying on the sea front as there are loads of jetty’s and fishing boats moored up but the actual sea front runs parallel with the esplanade, across the lake and behind another slim strip of land and beach. There is a long walk on this strip of land which we will tackle tomorrow.

There seems to be plenty of wildlife here too and we seem to be constantly seeing birds and creatures we haven’t seen before. In Lakes Entrance we have already seen three different ‘long beaked’ birds including pelican’s, just chilling out on the beach. Chris has been working on his skill of ‘creeping up on wildlife whilst taking photo’ and managed to get some pretty good shots. Unfortunately as soon as I try, there is a flurry of activity, beating wings and squawking and a resultant photo of an empty tree or beach. Perhaps I should leave Chris to be David Attenborough.

Wildlife Saturday

At around 9:30am we checked out of the coffee palace. We won’t look back. After yet another interrupted sleep we have definitely had enough of the place. This week we’ve been in a perpetual state of tiredness, trying to escape it by going to bed even earlier, but the palace keeps on dragging us down. Lets not keep going on about it though. The hostel wasn’t the best. Time to get over it!


Our room for the last week


The Coffee Palace

Today we headed for Philip Island (on Fran’s recommendation), which is an actual island (unlike Barry island) to the South East of Melbourne city. A relatively short drive of 2 hours meant that we had time to do all the sightseeing we wanted to in one afternoon. After a quick stop off at the Chill House, our next hostel, we went to the Koala conservation centre. Koala’s were once native to the south and east of Australia, but predominantly due to the urbanisation of their natural habitats, their numbers have been dramatically reduced. In the 1870’s when they were reintroduced to Philip Island (after having been driven out of the area in the 1830’s), their numbers native to the island were in the 800’s. Now they are less than 50! The conservation centre is a not-for-profit organisation which aims to preserve some of the Koala numbers. It was great to get so close to the Koala’s, and although the Koala’s weren’t the most active, they sleep for 20 hours a day (Jonny and Mark eat your heart out ;) ), we got some great photos.



At dusk we went to the south west of the island to watch the Penguin Parade! Here thousands of ‘Small Penguin’s’ emerge from the sea and make the trip up the beach towards their burrows, where their young are waiting for food. The sight of the penguins tentatively making their way out of the water, rushing back into the sea if a seagull got too close, and then sprinting up the sand into the cliff foliage was amazing. So as not to scare the penguins, no cameras were allowed, which was a real shame as later on we were able to get really close and we could have had some great photos. Andrea was totally in her element. She had a smile on her face the whole time, despite the appalling weather. The cold and rain did eventually get to us and we left after an hour or so. We braved it more than most people though.


Andrea in her element


Us braving the weather, all in the name of penguins!

Tomorrow we are heading along the coast to a place called Lakes Entrance, where we will relax for a couple of days and if the weather picks up a bit, probably hit the beach as well.

P.S. Happy birthday Seb for tomorrow!!

And then the rain came...

Today was an interesting day for a few reasons. Most notably, for the first time since we left the UK, it rained. It came all of a sudden. Earlier on today it was quite overcast but very very warm, around 34C apparently but then as we were booking some accommodation in one of the internet cafés after lunch, I suddenly became aware that the wind was absolutely howling - signs were being blown all over the place. As we left the internet café to go back to the hostel the wind had calmed but it was spitting ever so slightly. By the time we went out training, it was actually raining. Not very hard, but rain all the same.

We didn’t stray very far today as I had two reps sessions to complete - longs reps in the morning and sprints in the afternoon. This training day is my hardest day each week and I wanted to keep off my feet a bit and relax between sessions. I usually do this type of training on a Saturday but we thought it may be easier to do today as we are moving on tomorrow, and we also wanted to make use of the grass track handily situated across the road. Both sessions went pretty well, and for all my supporters (or my mum anyway) I’ve put a video of one of my reps here…prepare to be riveted!





Today was our last day in Melbourne before we head off in the morning. The week has gone really quickly and it feels as thought we have been here no time at all. As Chris said previously we would like to come back and do more things (perhaps with a bigger budget!) but of course you never know when you’ll get the chance again. I’m quite content that we saw as much of it as we could in the time and situation we were in though so I’ll look back fondly on this visit. I’ll look back less fondly on the hostel, or rather more specifically the guy in the room next door and his music, but I’m sure he won’t be my lasting memory of Melbourne!

I am pretty excited about tomorrow as we are heading off to Phillip Island where there is a Penguin Parade!!! Yeay!!

Cricket and Chinatown

After our relaxing day yesterday we were keen for a bit more activity today. We had decided earlier in the week that we were going to take a trip on the free city circle tram line, which gives you a guided tour of some of the sights on the periphery of Melbourne‘s city centre. The journey took about an hour and didn’t really show you a great deal. I’m not sure we expected much more, but it was nice weather and a free ride all the same!! We had also decided we were going to get a meal in Chinatown (does every major city have a Chinatown these days?) as we haven’t had a Chinese meal in ages. However, it was pretty disappointing. The food wasn’t well cooked and tasted pretty bland. I finished everything on my plate as always but was hating every mouthful. Oh well, considering food prices are way more expensive here and we only spent the equivalent of £10.50, I guess we can’t really complain too much. To cheer ourselves up (you can get really down on 6month holidays you know ;) ) we stopped for some drinks in Mrs Palmas pub - Victoria’s only microbrewery - which sells drinks produced within the state of Victoria. We stayed around an hour before heading to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) to watch Victoria play Western Australia in the Sheffield Cricket Cup. Today was the third day of their four day match. The MCG has the capacity to hold 100,000 people, but today there were only around 500 fans inside. Surprisingly there was actually a considerable amount of noise at the key moments, probably testament to the great acoustics within the stadium. For all the geeks, watching the cricket today meant that I actually have watched more live cricket this year than live athletics. Don’t worry though, it doesn’t mean I’m not an athletics fan anymore, just that I‘ve been a busy one.


Our ride!

Andrea loving the cricket!

Full house

So today was the last time we went into Melbourne City Centre as tomorrow Andrea has a couple of sessions to do and we are going to stay around St Kilda area. I don’t think it’ll be the last time we come to Melbourne though as there is so much to do here. However with the list of places we wish to visit increasing all the time, we can envisage it being a long time before we return…

First Impressions

Today was a quiet day as we took some time out of sightseeing to relax around St Kilda so there is nothing much to report in terms of what we did and saw. I think today was the first day we took no photos!

Instead of boring you all with the gory details of how Chris finished reading his book (the worst book ever apparently), how long our laundry took or how long the Wifi at Macdonalds takes to upload photos, I thought I would give a quick run down of my first impressions or thoughts about Australia so far. It may be interesting to see how they change, if at all, over the next few weeks!

High Point of trip so far:
The Blue Mountains - probably because it was completely unexpected. I was thinking we would go for half an hour and see a few hills, instead it was the most amazing view ever. I can see myself going back again in the future

Low point of the trip so far:
Travelling to Mildura in 42 degrees heat, trying to withhold from putting on the air-con and nearly passing out, only to arrive in Mildura and find our cabin was just as hot due to faulty air-con - gutting!

Biggest Surprise
It has to be the outback. Nothing can prepare you for the scenery you will see and the remoteness of some of the villages. People tell you before you go, but certainly for me I really didn’t grasp it at all.

Most unexpected difference between Australia and the UK:
Definitely the food and drink costs! I will never forgot the $5 loaf of bread we bought on the first day, and thinking I would have to make my sole remaining pack of wine gums last the whole six months (thankfully we have found cheaper stores). It still remains expensive though. Sausages remain the cheapest meat, and I foresee a period of sausage-teetotallness when we return to the UK!

Wish we had it in the UK:
(Speaking personally as a runner) I love the fact there are loos on every corner - usually clean and free of charge. No bushes needed so far. I also see a lot more options for sport and keeping fit in Australia- such as ‘fitness corners’ in parks. It’s great to see them actually being used for the purposes they are intended for rather than as stands for beer cans…

Glad we don’t have in the UK:
A whole lot of flies, even in the middle of the city. I’m beginning to wonder if my sun cream is actually a fly magnet. I can’t stand still long enough for a photo. Also, snakes, spiders and the like. But you have heard enough about them by now…

Most annoying fact:
The fact that ‘produce of Australia’ is rammed down your throat at every opportunity. Of course it is great to support local communities, employ local people and use local produce, but it gets a bit ridiculous when you have signs at like a Shell garage saying ‘locally owned and run’ in massive writing. Perhaps it is, and great, but we don’t need telling all the time!

CSI Melbourne

Today we went to Fitzroy, an alternative suburb a couple of miles north-east of Melbourne city centre. Most of the action is along one main road, Brunswick St, where we saw some weird and wonderful clothes shops, bookshops and pubs. It took us an hour or so to do the ‘strip’ before we stopped for a chocolate milkshake at one of Melbourne’s fancy chocolate café’s. Delicious! We then headed back towards the city centre and stopped for lunch in the beautiful Royal Botanical Gardens. As with most major cities, they always claim that they have the best this or that. Melbourne claim they have the best botanical gardens. Whether they are or aren’t isn’t really important, however they were indeed very impressive. A stop off at the Olympic Park to take in the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where the 1956 Olympics were held, before heading back to the hostel rounded off our site-seeing for the day.

It was returning to the hostel that we realised some of our stuff had been stolen. On the trip so far we have tried our best to be really careful; always locking our stuff away in our bags, hiding keys, and taking as much of our important stuff with us at all times as possible. But unfortunately that wasn’t enough. Someone had eaten our sausages out of the communal fridge!! A quick trip to the supermarket put things back in order and normal service was resumed.

We had initially planned to have a quiet evening writing our blogs and reading etc, but we had noticed a bar round the corner with some decent deals on drinks this evening. It was a spur of the moment decision, but at 9:30pm (not far off our normal bedtime!) we decided to head down there. Drinks are so expensive in Australia as the government taxes the drinks industry heavily. It basically means a pint of beer for £5-7 is the norm. Being able to buy drinks (including pints) for around £2, like we are used to at home, was a bit of a novelty. It was a nice evening only spoilt once we got back to the hostel and the morons in the room next door woke us up with their loud music and shouting at 3am. We had earplugs in, but the base on their music was so loud the bed was vibrating. Andrea asked them to turn it down, which they did, however 5 minutes later the music was back up to previous levels. Thankfully we both managed to get to sleep within an hour. I did think my days of living like I’m university halls were behind me though. How wrong

The search is over

I can honestly say that the earplugs we bought from the local pharmacy yesterday were the best $1 we have spent so far. It was probably quieter last night anyway but there must have been some activity in the hostel as we had to step over a sleeping reveller sprawled on the floor at the top of the stairs on our way out running. I wonder if my fear of noisy sleeping establishments may finally be over with this new found solution! I will wait to see if tonight’s slumber is just as peaceful before making judgement!

Today we planned to explore the centre of Melbourne and after being surprisingly impressed with the free pancake breakfast at the hostel, we headed into the centre on the tram - once we figured out which one to get on, and then how to pay.

The centre of Melbourne seemed quite large and one of the first things we noticed was the abundance of chains which comprised a fairly big shopping district - something we hadn’t noticed with Sydney although perhaps we just didn’t go to the right places. The centre was really busy but it was fairly cool today so we embarked on a self guided walking tour as recommended by the lonely planet book (which is also fairly high up on the list of money well spent). The tour took us down a number of arcade’s and narrow streets with many restaurants and boutique shops. Places we wouldn’t necessarily have seen without doing the tour. We both really liked the compactness of the area. Whilst it would be annoying if you were in a rush due to volume of people, it was pleasant to saunter along and mooch around a few of the shops. The tour ended by walking across the Southern Bridge. By this point the sun had come out and it almost took you aback when you appeared out from the buildings.



It was whilst mooching about in some of the shops that we finally discovered our long sought after used copy of Lord of the Flies. We were beginning to wonder if it was true - a used copy just doesn’t exist. I’d seen four copies of a book I read recently called ’dead run’ (not the best I‘ve ever read), bought from Northallerton market, but absolutely nothing Lord of the flies esque. I was just about to suggest to Chris that his Macro economics book (!) he insisted on bringing out here may remain his sole reading material for the trip but then, in the very last bookshop we went in, there it was (and in pretty nifty condition too).

So, we can now tick off something else off the list. Lord of the Flies. Oh yes and Melbourne was very nice too. We didn’t see everything we wanted to see though so no doubt we will be heading back in a couple of times this week…..

St Kilda

Mine and Andrea’s fears about the hostel were realised at around 12:30am this morning when the guys in the room next door decided to put their music on full blast for about 5-10minutes. Not very long, but long enough when in a haze of tiredness. The noise in the hostel was constant throughout the night. I managed a few more hours than Andrea, but I was definitely still tired when I got up this morning. Hopefully that will be the worst of it as it was a Saturday night. However this is a backpacker hostel full of people with no jobs and no reason to get up in the morning, so I’m not holding out much hope.

Today we decided to have a quiet day and look around the local area of St Kilda. The suburb lies on the East side of Melbourne’s large harbour. It attracts a lot of tourists and locals alike as it has great weather, sandy beaches and a few streets of bars and restaurants. The establishments cater for millionaires and backpackers alike, which makes pigeonholing St Kilda difficult. We are still trying to work out if we like it here or not. By day the area is fantastic. We love the bars and restaurants and are currently trying to chose a couple which we shall visit for dinner later in the week. However at night it has a totally different vibe. We have heard some others say the same thing, so I’m sure its not just in our imaginations.

One of the other things that we have noticed is that there are lots of families on holiday here, which got us wondering - would you bring your kids here? Admittedly there is stuff here for kids to do; there is the beach (full of jellyfish), there are the many ice-cream parlours and there is a small theme park (overpriced) on the waterfront. However, I think bringing children and allowing them to see all of these revellers in the bars, which are packed out from midday, is not the best message. I wouldn’t want my kids to grow up thinking that holidays were all about boozing. Surely it‘d be better to take them somewhere nice like Centre Parks! But hey what do I know. I shouldn’t be so judgemental. Maybe its just that there are some great package holidays for families to St Kilda at the moment.

Tomorrow we’re getting the tram into the centre of the city, which we are both looking forward to. Another day of lots of walking and sightseeing awaits!!

Mountains and Melbourne

Two things happened today - firstly it was our planned trip to the Grampian Mountains and secondly we arrived in Melbourne for our one week stay.

The Grampian mountains were unusual in that the surrounding area is completely flat but then you have a mountain range right in the middle of it as you can see in the photo below. It was quite spectacular as we drove up to it from Horsham. We followed the ‘tourist route’ through the National Park and back out of it stopping at Mackenzie falls, and various lookout points. Not of course before we had stopped for more photos of yet another ‘sleepy lizard’ by the side of the road. Perhaps we have been spoilt by the endless great photo opportunities we got from the Blue Mountains but we didn’t seem to get many good shots of the Grampian mountains and spent quite some time looking for the perfect photo. We did manage to get a snap or two at one of the look out points but perhaps the best photo of the day was of yet another lizard. Chris spotted the new type of reptile (Ghecko??) on our walk back to the car from one of the lookouts and we managed to get quite close to it without scaring it away (quite an achievement considering I was being eaten alive by flies and just wanted to jump up and down yelling). We took about 20 photos before finally getting a good one. Thank goodness the days of 24 photo films are behind us or we would have had a number of lizard themed visits to Kodak!







We then headed on to Melbourne. We had booked a hostel in St Kilda which is close to the beach and also near Albert’s Park. The location is fantastic - the Albert’s park across the road has a lake with a path the whole way around it totalling about 5km so great for training, and there are a number of shops and restaurants close to the hostel and a tram stop for getting into the city centre. The hostel however, hmmm. My hostel gremlins are back. We were pleasantly surprised that we got the room cheaper than what it was quoted on the website or when we phoned up to book. But our delight stopped there. Not that it wasn’t a nice and clean place and the room wasn’t a decent size, more so because of the clientele. We walked in to check in, and I felt about a hundred years old and as if I had stepped back into Uni halls of residence. Everybody was so young! To make matters worse, they all seemed to know each other, and even by 5:30pm when we arrived it was obvious that el vino was flowing. We both felt a bit intimidated, thank goodness we were not in a dorm! On exploring the hostel it became apparent that most people were just here to drink. It occurred to us that for some people this is travelling. Just getting drunk in a lots of different countries and it really isn’t our scene at all.

I’m hoping that it won’t be too noisy tonight or it may be a trip to the ear plug shop tomorrow….

Leaving the Outback

Well considering we have been away nearly two weeks I thought it was about time I gave you an update of how the running is going. The first few days we were here Andrea just did some light jogging. Partly because of the swelling on her ankles and also to allow her to get used to the heat and jetlag. By the later part of the first week, things were pretty much the way they would have been had we been in the UK. The first couple of weeks here coincided with a mid-season break so she has been mainly steady running. Over this weekend Andrea is doing her first proper session of the trip, a 9mile tempo run around a racecourse in Horsham. The next day she is doing a 1h50min long run. If all goes well she will have completed her biggest ever mileage week of approximately 95miles. You’ll know how the tempo has gone by whether Andrea mentions it in her blog tomorrow!! After not running a step for 5months I have started doing a few easy runs with Andrea. I have no intention of racing later in the trip, but I still enjoy running around some of the towns and cities that we are visiting.

Running aside we did more travelling today, only four hours though, as we left the sweltering Mildura for the smouldering Horsham (South Australia is still suffering a heatwave). We have left the outback well and truly behind now as we travel further south through the state of Victoria. You can no longer see for miles across the arid plains as trees and farmland now line the highways. Also the towns are also no longer 200km apart which is comforting if anything were to happen. On our journeys the wildlife game still continues. Today not far into our journey I spotted a ’sleepy lizard’ crossing the road and promptly jumped out of the car to get a photo. He looks like beardies fat cousin.



Apart from that there is little else to report. We had a look around the town and then had fish and chips and a few drinks in one of the bars. I’m a bit miffed as they always seem to serve in half pints unless prompted. Who the hell cares about responsible drinking!!


Wimmera River running through Horsham

Tomorrow we are heading to Melbourne, where we’ll be staying for a week. We will be stopping off in the Grampian’s National Park along the way as we’ve heard it’s a good one.

And the Heat Goes on….

And on and on. Another day of plus 40 degrees meant that we again achieved very little. Too hot to think about anything but being hot. Certainly too hot to contemplate doing anything or going anywhere - a little jaunt down to the park near the river was about all we could handle. If this continues I sense that my evening run and the following morning’s run will get closer and closer together!

The lack of activity because of the heat has given us a little bit of time to plan our next steps and I think we almost know where we will go for the rest of the first part of this trip - until we head to New Zealand at the beginning of December. Whilst time seems to be passing really quickly it does seem a very long time since I was at work and packing up to come here. It feels especially weird seeing all the Christmas decorations up and knowing that Christmas pretty much won’t happen this year for us, and I’m sure I’ll be missing home on December 25th. However It makes me laugh that it is so hot and yet they have all the typical Father Christmas’s stuff out here. I did once see a Santa on a Jet Ski though so perhaps over here it’s Christmas with a twist!

In light of the crazy heat we have decided to head to the coast as soon as we can where it‘s reported to be cooler. We’ll be stopping for one night only in Horsham, so we can go walking on the Grampian Mountains, before heading straight to Melbourne where we intend to stay for a week. As much as I loved the outback, I am looking forward to getting back into the hustle and bustle of a city and I think Melbourne will have plenty to entertain us with. It will be a nice break from moving around all the time and our hostel is going to be pretty close to a park for training and a beach for chilling out so all’s good. We’re both hoping we might meet some people in the hostel as we are staying there more than 48 hours. Whilst we haven’t been driving each other up the wall or anything like that, it will still be nice to have other people to hang out with now and then. I’m also banking on there being less of my favourite insect and slithery friends in the city - no-more going to the bathroom in pairs!!!

The last laugh

Oh how foolish I feel. Laughing at the people back home having to cope with the wind and rain, while Andrea and I were enjoying mid-20’s for the best part of a week. Well that has all changed. South-East Australia is currently suffering a heat wave at the moment, meaning that November temperatures should be 30C whereas they are actually 40C. Almost unheard of at this time of year. Green campaigners on the TV are claiming that this is proof of global warming, not doing their cause any favours.

The day was pretty uneventful as there is not much you can do in these temperatures. In the morning we had left Menindee behind and arrived in Mildura, Victoria. About 3hrs into our 5hr journey the car temperature had hit 42C!! At this point we thought enough was enough and put the air-con on!

Midura town sits on the Murray river, one of the most important waterways in Australia. The fertile soil means that it is one of the countries most productive agricultural areas. In fact most of the Australian wine in the UK is produced around here. We might have to try some out tomorrow!

It is promising to be another scorcher tomorrow, so we will probably have a pretty lazy day. Might even do some snake hunting (just kidding mum)…

Lakes with no water and dirt roads

Today we headed south from Broken Hill to Menindee Lakes, a shorter drive this time and only a mere 100km or so. We were staying on a caravan park a little outside of Menindee. If Broken Hill was Silent Hill, this was it’s sinister cousin. A huddle of caravans in the middle of nowhere all covered in dust and no signs of any people. But what sold the place to us was the boating lake only 50m from our cabin - that was until we were mobbed by zillions of pesky flies coming up from the water.

I can’t believe we spent so long looking out for Kangaroo’s. They are now becoming commonplace. There must have been loads living around the caravan park and I counted 17 on my evening run. The search for the perfect photo goes on though and Chris spent about half an hour upon arrival at the place chasing one unfortunate kangaroo around the park, camera in hand.

The town of Menindee itself was tiny and I spent most of the day actually believing there was only 98 residents, (the sign had a digit missing). There is only one main road into Menindee - the one we came in on, and the rest are classed as unsealed (ie sand, dirt etc). It seems so cut off . My fear of snakes continues to thrive. The locals informed us that brown snakes are common in Menindee, one of their friends had had to wrestle and kill one that morning, and to my horror, apparently the time taken for a brown snake to kill you is only 2 mins, 3 mins less than in Broken Hill!!

We briefly went to find the Menindee lakes (being even more careful in case of snakes) but to our disappointment, there was no water to be seen, apparently they have been dried out for years. We did find a small ‘lake’ full of stinking water and dead fish which Chris insisted on photographing. I was non too impressed at being dragged to the water edge across sand and debris in my flip flops. I had remembered about the existence of spiders at this point and returning to the 40C car was a much more appealing option.

Tomorrow, we were planning on risking the unsealed ‘dirt’ roads to get to Mildura, our next stop, rather than head back up to Broken Hill and around on the highway, but on our outing to the lakes (a couple of Km down an unsealed road), we decided we didn’t dare risk it with a hire car and also the chance of there being sand to get stranded in - miles and miles from anywhere. The long way round it is for us tomorrow then!

Silent Hill....No i mean Broken Hill

We had a fairly relaxed day around Broken Hill today. Andrea had a couple of runs to do, which she did early in the morning and then late as the sun set, to attempt to miss the blazing heat from the sun. Our hunt for wild animals continued and we were lucky to see a kangaroo standing in the middle of the road on our evening run. They are more active at sunrise and sunset so we thought a run out of town into the desert at dusk might mean we see one and we weren’t disappointed.

Other than that we had a look around the town and made a trip up to ‘the living desert’, a series of aboriginal inspired sculptures on the top of a hill overlooking Broken Hill. The sculptures weren’t what inspired us to make the trip, instead it was the view. It was fantastic. If you ever get a chance to take a trip into the outback, I would definitely recommend it. The scenery is immense. So bare, so vast, yet incredibly diverse. Andrea and I are already planning a safari around Uluru National Park (Ayers Rock) on our next trip to Australia to experience other parts of the outback. We had both thought that after this trip Australia would be ticked off the list…not even close!


Me standing on the hill with Broken Hill behind.


Bearded dragon in the ‘living desert’, similarly to our beardy!

Tomorrow we are heading down to our second national park at Menindee Lakes, 100km south east of Broken Hill. There should be more Kangaroo spotting opportunities and as we’re still on the lookout for the perfect ‘Roo’ photo, you had better watch this space….

The road to Broken Hill!

We saw a lot of the above road today.  In fact, nine hours of it in total.  Broken Hill is a mining town in the Outback of New South Wales.  The last place we saw before arriving at Broken Hill, was 200km before.  To make it seem even more remote, we were travelling on a ‘highway’, and one of the main routes into Broken Hill, yet we saw only a handful of vehicles, most of which were goods lorries.  I was a bit worried that we just going to find a ghost town when we got there.  Having a name like Broken Hill didn’t help, it hardly brings to mind an image of a paradise place.

I thought we were in the outback in Dubbo.  How very wrong I was.  As we travelled, the countryside changed yet again, to true outback scenery, ie very flat, very orange, very desert like.  Long long straight roads with not a soul to be seen.  Minor ‘roads’ leading off the highway which resembled dirt tracks.  What struck me was what it would be like to live on some of the ‘stations’ (farms?) in the outback (we saw the odd driveway and letter box but not a house in sight).  Imagine popping out to the supermarket and having to drive 250km.  We stopped to take a few photos en route - a couple of which can be seen below.  On a couple of occasions we saw our bearded dragon’s (beardie george) distant cousins basking in the sun on the road.  When we got out to look, they shot off into the undergrowth at very high speed.  Our beardie would have been put to shame.  Chris also reckons he saw a (live) kangaroo.  I’m not convinced.

Bearded Dragon Sunbathing

Service Station!!

The view from the car!

 

I scared myself a bit by wondering what would happen if one of us got bitten by a snake or a scorpion - you can’t exactly just nip to the hospital.  We didn’t get out of the car so much after that.  It was a bit uncomfortable considering temperatures went up to 35C and we were abstaining from using the air con (saving money :) ) but we survived (although we weren’t much to look at).

It was fairly late when we arrived here in Broken Hill, so we have not had much chance to explore yet.  That will be tomorrow’s activity. In the meantime, I’ve uploaded a video we took of one of the monkeys in Dubbo Zoo. Hope you like it…

Dubbo Zoo

The primary reason for our visit to Dubbo was the Western Plains Zoo on the outskirts of the town. It is well known for its project work across the world and mainly houses large mammals. This meant no crocs, snakes or spiders. Andrea was particularly pleased about this. We got there early and walked the 5 Miles around the park, making sure we saw all of the animals. The Siamang Apes were particularly vocal and amazingly agile. A few of our favourite photos are below.









Tomorrow we are travelling West from Dubbo into the heart of the New South Wales Outback to the small town of Broken Hill. In the UK the 9 hour drive would usually be quite daunting, but we are both actually really excited about seeing some of the Australian Outback. We have already filled the car with petrol and have bought extra bottled water, just in case. Hopefully there will be some more interesting photo opportunities ahead….

Lots of driving but no kangaroo!

Today we left the Blue Mountains and headed for Dubbo, a largish town in the central New South Wales Region.  We were glad we had ‘done’ the mountains yesterday as today we were met with fog, which didn’t lift, and pouring rain.  Combined with the mountainous terrain we were both thrilled to be out running at 7am and not sorry to be leaving for flatter terrain!

The drive from Katoomba to Dubbo was about four hours, but in that time it felt almost like we had travelled across a number of different counties or even countries.  The time passed really quickly but there were such rapid changes in the environment and scenery it took you almost by surprise.  One moment you were in the mountains, the next you were met with rolling hills littered with green grass and trees, only the next moment to see dusty yellow brown fields with seemingly no living creatures upon them.  It was quite amazing and we both could have travelled all day.  Except it was incredibly hot.  Despite the fog and pouring rain in Katoomba, as we neared Dubbo, the temperature rose and rose until we were almost forced to put on the AC in the car - but we weren’t that desperate yet!

The journey, whilst scenic, was fairly uneventful.   Our search for the best wildlife continued.  The first person to spot a kangaroo would be declared the winner, however I continue to argue with Chris that a dead kangaroo on the side of the road, no matter how many of them you see, or how squashed they are, does not count!

The only other exciting event (or should I say terrifying) was when we were pulled over by the police.  Oh yes, we were sailing into town, slightly above the speed limit when we got motioned aside.  My heart dropped into my stomach.  Luckily, it was only a ‘spot’ check and we were soon on our way.  Not before we decided, to ourselves, to be ever so much more careful about our speed in future!

Tomorrow we are off to the Western Plains Zoo, one of the biggest and best zoos around (apparently).  However (and you are my witnesses) any wildlife spotted at the zoo does not count in the competition!

Blue Mountains and the Worlds Deadliest Snake

Brace yourselves guys, this could be a long one…

We were a bit concerned when we woke up that our trip into the Blue Mountains would be spoilt by the heavy fog still lingering around Katoomba. Fortunately after a couple of hours it was completely clear. We’d heard that the Blue Mountains was one of the best National Park close to Sydney and so we were quite excited about viewing them. We weren’t disappointed. After a short walk from the hostel we arrived at Echo’s point, one of the many fantastic viewing points overlooking the park.

So how do I describe it. There is little to compare it to in the UK, and as you will probably have noticed from the photos below it covers a vast area. The park is primarily made up of rainforest with many mountainous outcrops which break up the luscious greeny-blue scenery. When we arrived we were shocked by how beautiful it was and were really happy we had made the decision to stop off here on our way around New South Wales.


Blue Mountains National Park from Echo Point.




Katoomba falls.

The Blue Mountains national park is a conservation area so tourists aren’t allowed to venture on their own and must stick to the paths which circumnavigate either the cliff top or the cliff bottom. As the difference in heights between these paths is somewhere in the region of 250-300m it can mean a lot of climbing and descending. Fortunately for people not as fit as ourselves there is a cable-car and the worlds steepest railway which can take you from top to bottom in just a few minutes. We wanted to experience them, but, perhaps stupidly, we were also keen to walk down and then up some of the more adventurous paths. It meant for some great photos but really tired legs!


Worlds steepest railway!

All through the day me and Andrea were competing to win our own wildlife spotting competition. The loser has to buy sweets! By the time of our final ascent we were neck and neck, with Andrea spotting a small lizard in the bushes and myself spotting a White Exotic Bird (Parakeet?) near the cable car (a soft point as the cable car owners had left seeds out to entice them). On our final ascent back to Katoomba Andrea hit the jackpot. On one of the viewing points near the top of the cliff she spotted a small black snake bathing on the cliff top. I was keen to take a photo of it as I had never seen a snake in the wild before, and below you can see it. Later on we found out it was actually the Tiger Snake, the worlds deadliest snake, which if it bites you can kill you in a couple of hours. Perhaps next time I won’t get so close!!


Lizard in the bush.


Tiger Snake!

So that was our time in Katoomba. We would definitely recommend it to others if they were passing through. Unfortunately, the photos don’t really do it justice, but we hope you appreciate them anyway. We’re heading to Dubbo tomorrow, which is a four hour trip. Primarily famous for its zoo, which we are looking forward to. I’m sure there will be more photos coming your way.

Thanks for reading ;)

Katoomba

Today we ventured out of Sydney suburbia and into the Blue mountains. We had booked a couple of nights in Katoomba in one of the hostels, and were looking forward to meeting a few people and seeing some of the scenery. It wasn’t so hot today, which was fine by me and there was even a few spots of rain on our drive through the mountains.

Katoomba is a small town up the mountains. It’s a pretty little place consisting of one main street and supermarket. There is also, strangely, an abundance of bookshops although Chris’s search for a used copy of ‘Lord of the Flies’ goes on.
Unfortunately, our opinion of our hostel dropped a mile when we were told that ’free internet’ actually meant 30mins free - not long enough for all our planned skyping activities or accomodation hunting. Our opinion dropped further when we realised there were no sinks in the toilets and the kitchen was a bit on the pungent side. - oh and the payphone didn’t work either. Other than that it was fine!

We had planned on going for a bit of stroll to a place called ‘Echo Point’ which apparently has amazing views out across the mountains, however it wasn’t long before the fog set in for the day (see photo below) and we thought there was no point, we were more likely to get lost than see anything.

Instead we walked around the town and managed to find a computer shop which did cheap internet so after a few emails we spent some time hunting for accomodation for when we go to the states. We have been finding it much more expensive than we expected here in Australia - food costs particularly are sky high, so we’re keen to try and find a cheap short term let in the US to try and re-coup a few costs. We also managed to suss out how to put photos on blogs. We hope you enjoyed yesterday’s selection.

Tomorrow we are going to do today’s Echo Point visit and then go on one of the walks around the national park. There are a few waterfalls which would be good to see too.

So, all in all, a fairly quiet day, although I’m not quite sure where the time has gone. The only other noteworthy things to mention were that we did our first core session on Australian soil and finally managed to cook a meal (only after washing all the pots and pans prior to cooking!). It was good to have a home made meal and, although the McDonalds in Australia are excellent, we are looking forward to eating well again now.

Sydney in a day

The day started with me and Andrea sleeping in and getting up really late at……8am, yes yes I know, how can we possibly stay in bed so long ;). We got up and went out for our second run around the Olympic Park, today being a lot hotter than yesterday, and then got ourselves ready for our first real day of sightseeing.

As the Olympic Park is about 5miles out from the centre of Sydney we popped onto one of the double-decker citylink trains into the centre of the city. We only have a day in the city this time round so we wanted to see some of the famous sites. However as the day wore on it got hotter and hotter, hitting 35C according to some of the billboards. Undeterred by the heat we set about walking from the station up to Sydney Harbour Bridge, round to the Opera house and then back down through the Royal Botanic Gardens. All three were spectacular and below are a selection of our favourite photos.



Andrea outside the Olympic Park stadium.



Some interesting wildlife in Hyde Park, Sydney.



Me and Andrea in front of the Opera House.



Close up of the Opera House.



Sydney Harbour Bridge. The photo doesn’t do the scale of it justice.



Looking back at the Sydney skyline from outside the Opera House.

The third of November is also traditionally a big celebration day over here as it is the Melbourne Cup, the Australian version of the grand national. The betting shops and pubs were overflowing and there were many expensive parties going on in some of the fancy bars around the harbour. As we progressed south through the city to Kings Cross, a bizarre area of Sydney where upmarket hotels and restaurants meet cheap strip-bars and sexshops, we were inundated with drunken Aussies falling out of bars and into the streets around us. Before today we just thought only the Brits knew how to make fools of themselves drinking on such a grand scale. We were wrong. Amused and horrified in equal measure, we made our way to the station and headed back.

Tomorrow we are off to Katoomba, which is on the edge of the Blue Mountain National Park. We are staying in a youth hostel there, hoping to meet some fellow backpackers and get some good photos as we have a couple of days to explore the surrounding areas. I’ll report back soon. Adios until then…